HS 116 World Civilization up to 1500 – Spring 2008 Syllabus
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Instructor: Dr. Joseph Stumpf. Office Hours: HU 274 , MWF 9:55-10:55; TR 8:30-9:30. I may be reached by email (joseph.stumpf@montgomerycollege.edu) or by phone (240-567-7280)
The class: HS 116 is one of two related courses (with HS 117),
which may be taken in either order and which cover the world's great cultures,
religious and political systems. This course offers the student an opportunity
to understand contemporary life in terms of the accumulated cultural
experiences of the world and to appreciate the growing interdependence of
modern nations. HS 116 covers material from the ancient world to A.D. 1500 and
is a comparative inquiry into the emergence and flowering of ancient Near
Eastern and Mediterranean civilizations; the Christian Middle Ages and
Renaissance in Europe; China and the development of Confucianism, Taoism, and
Buddhism; Hinduism and Indian empires; Islam--its conquests and the rise of
Ottoman Empire; civilizations of the Americas and African developments. We
shall discuss historical and cultural trends as well as pinpoint specific
events that shaped history in this part of the world. I hope that the accumulated legacies which
our own society has inherited from these civilizations will become
apparent. Because there is so much
material to cover, the format of the course will be primarily lecture
Outcomes
|
|
On
completion of this course students will be able to |
|
1. |
Chart
the spread of humanity from |
|
2. |
Explain
the geographical and environmental reasons for the varying rates of social
and historical development throughout the world. |
|
3. |
Trace
religious developments from ritualistic and communal forms to theologically
more sophisticated forms which allow for personal spirituality and contain
explicit codes of morality. |
|
4. |
Understand
how globalism or interconnectedness, as evidenced
for example by the history of Central Asiatic peoples and the Silk Road or by
the |
|
5. |
Students
will be equipped with a basic chronological framework of world history and
will therefore be able to understand cause and effect and comment upon
contemporary developments in different parts of the world. |
To put this more generally,
the student is expected to gain familiarity with the broad trends of world
history and be conversant in the reasons, geographic, cultural and individual,
that created the world of 1500. Students
will be responsible for a basic geographic knowledge, in addition to the key
historical figures and events, and will be expected to think critically about
cause and effect in history, and about the relative value of historical
sources.
Attendance: Although much of the material can be had from the
books, I do not recommend skipping classes with the idea that you can simply
find all the subject matter in the books.
Much will be presented in class that is not found in the texts and vice
versa, and you will be responsible for all of it. In a TR
class, I consider more than two absences to be excessive and detrimental to
your grade. If you foresee missing
class for some reason, please talk to me beforehand and if I believe the excuse
legitimate I may excuse the absence. If
you are ill, I will excuse the absence provided you furnish a valid medical
excuse. I will not give out notes or lesson
plans to those who were absent, excused or not.
You will have to make arrangements with a classmate to get the class
notes. Lateness, especially chronic lateness is disruptive and will be
noted. If you anticipate problems in
arriving to class on time, come talk to me. Perhaps something can be arranged.
Classroom Conduct: I
expect a Civilization class to be civilized.
Be polite and courteous and listen to the opinions of your classmates
without interrupting them (even if you violently disagree with what they’re
saying). Insults or cursing are
unacceptable: we may be covering the barbarian invasions, but we don’t have to
act them out. One other note: Please make sure your cell phones, pagers,
etc. have been turned off. Unless that’s
Caesar or Confucius on the phone, we don’t want to hear it. For further information, refer to your
Student Code of Conduct, section
Academic Honesty:
It is expected that the work
you turn in as your own is your own. Cheating on exams or quizzes will not be
tolerated and will result in an automatic F on the exam or quiz in question. Plagiarized papers will suffer a similar
fate. Not only are they pointless, but
they are often only mediocre work, which, with a little application, you could
easily better. Moreover, they are very
easy to detect. Don’t try it. For more information you may consult the
Student Code of Conduct, Section IV and please consult the attached sheet on
citation below.
Support Services: A student who may need an
accommodation due to a disability should make an appointment to see me during
my office hours. A letter from
Disability Support Services (
Those students who do not feel comfortable writing in the
English language may wish to avail themselves of the
service provided in the Writing and
Cancellation of Classes: Classes
may be cancelled in the event of (very) inclement weather, but only if the
school as a whole closes. If you do not
hear of this, assume that the class is being held. If for some reason I am
unable to hold class, I will do my best to let you know in advance.
Grades: There will be a total of 300 points possible
in the course. Thus 270-300 points
received will be an A, 240-269 a B, 210-239 a C, 180-209 a D. There will be no curve. Grades will consist of a midterm examination
comprising identifications and essays (worth 80 points), a map quiz (10
points), a paper (80 points) and a final examination including, again,
identifications and essays (100 points).
There are no make-ups for the examinations unless you can provide an
authorized medical excuse. Twenty points
will be reserved for short take home assignments or else a pop quiz. The remaining ten points are awarded at my
discretion and will reflect attendance and class participation. Late papers will be penalized one letter
grade. Papers turned in later than one
week will not be accepted.
The texts: There are two texts for the class, though I
may decide to provide additional readings, either in handouts, on the web or on
reserve in the library. These books will
be found in the book store on campus.
▪ The
Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History. 3rd ed. Bulliet et al.
(abbreviated below as EP)
▪ The
Human Record: Sources of Global History. 5th
ed. Andrea and Overfield (HR)
Provisional Schedule of
1. Jan. 27 (T):
Introduction. Historical Sources
2. Jan. 29 (R):
The Paleolithic Era
EP 1-18
Feb. 1: Last
day to drop class with refund
3. Feb. 3 (T):
The Neolithic and Urban Revolutions EP 18-21, 113-114
4. Feb. 5 (R):
Riverine Civilizations EP 28-52, 58-59; HR # 12, 13
5. Feb. 10 (T):
The Bronze and Iron Age Near East – The Age of Empires I
6. Feb. 12 (R):
Feb. 15: Last
day to drop class without grade or switch credit/audit status
7. Feb. 17 (T):
The Indo-Europeans: Greeks and Persians
8. Feb. 19 (R):
The Greek City States
EP 130-142; HR # 25
9. Feb. 24 (T):
The Greek Legacy
HR # 24, 27
10. Feb. 26 (R):
The Indo-Aryans and Vedic
11. Mar. 3 (T):
Buddhism EP 184-185, 188-189, 224-226; HR # 16, 17, 34, 39
12. Mar. 5 (R):
Hinduism and Later
13. Mar. 10 (T):
Mar. 12 (R):
Midterm Examination
March 16-22:
Spring Break
14. Mar. 24 (T):
The Age of Empires II – The Qin and Han Dynasties of China; Alexander
and the Hellenistic World; The Silk Road
EP 142-148, 166-174, 208-213; HR # 32
15. Mar. 26 (R):
16. Mar. 31 (T):
Later Judaism and Christianity HR # 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49
17. Apr. 2 (R):
Islam EP
230-237; HR # 55, 56, 57, 58
18. Apr. 7 (T):
Islam by Land and Sea; The Turks EP 213-221; HR # 75, 77
19. Apr. 9 (R): Medieval
20. Apr. 14 (T):
Medieval
21. Apr. 16 (R):
Byzantium and Medieval Eastern Europe; The Crusades EP 255-259, 269-273, 275-278; HR # 76, 81, 82
Apr. 19 (S): Last
day to drop class with “W”
22. Apr. 21 (T):
The High and Late Middle Ages in
23. Apr. 23 (R):
The Mongols and the Ming Dynasty EP 337-358; HR # 100, 101, 102, 107
24. Apr. 28 (T):
25. Apr. 30 (R):
Subsaharan Africa EP 65-70, 221-227, 366-375, 380-384; HR # 90,
91, 92, 93, 105. Papers are due.
26. May 5 (T):
The
27. May 7 (R):
The
May 14 (R)
8:00-10:00. Final
Examination
Paper Assignment
Write a five to seven page
essay on one of the following topics.
The essay should directly address the questions at hand and provide as
many specifics as appropriate. This is
not a research paper and you are not required to use any sources other than
your textbooks and class notes, but, of course, I will permit you to use other
books (preferably) or websites (grudgingly), provided they are properly
credited and cited. Papers are due April
30. Paper assignments received late will
be penalized one letter grade. Papers
received more than a week later will not be accepted.
1. Describe some of the ways in which the
Western World is indebted, technologically, to
2. Describe some of the ways in which world
religions have moved from a matter of theology and ritual toward personal
spirituality, salvation and moral codes.
The subject is, obviously, huge, so I will grant you latitude on which
religions you choose to work with.
3. Over the course of the semester we will see
the creation (and destruction) of many far-flung, multiethnic empires. Select three of these to compare and contrast
and explain the reasons behind the ruling government’s successes. Were specific policies put in place that
abetted empire? Charismatic
leaders and serendipity? What problems
did those in power face in maintaining their control? How did these empires fall? Some examples that you may choose to work
with include the Assyrians, the Persians, the empire of Alexander, the Roman
Empire, that of Asoka in India, the Ch’in (or Qin), Han or Tang dynasties in
China, the early Caliphates of Islam, the khanates of Mongolia, the Incas and
Aztecs. The list goes on.
4. Discuss the merits and limitations of sacred
literatures as historical sources. How
can they be used by the historian with profit?
What sorts of information can be had from them? What factors must the historian keep in mind
and what precautions must he/she take?
You must cite specific passages to back up your arguments. Homer’s Iliad (for the sake of argument), the
Old and New Testaments, Christian hagiographies, the Koran and the Hadith, the Rig Veda and Upanishads, the Confucian Classics
of History or the Buddhist Sutras might be possible examples.
Needless to say, these topics
are large, so you must exercise control over your prose. Practice concision. As the bard says, “brevity is the soul of
wit.”
Professor Stumpf’s
Top Ten Grammatical and Stylistic Pet Peeves:
1.
Spelling! Spellcheck
is not sufficient! The English language
has an endless supply of homonyms and confusing words. Make sure your prose is saying what you want
it to say.
There and their.
The second marks a possessive.
“There
is a Redskins football game on tonight.
It is in their home stadium.”
Than and then. The first
marks a comparative. “More than...” “Greater than…” The second marks a change in time. “First she does this, then
she does that.”
Weather and whether. The second is
an adverb.
“I will go out whether
or not the weather is good.
2.
Possessives. Apostrophes are
used, among other things, for marking something as possessive. “John’s books.” “Graciela’s new car.” “The
3. Subjunctive
voice. Fairly rare in English, but you
should still know it. This is used in
sentences which do not state something as fact, but as a conditional
possibility. “If he gets an ‘A’ in Biology, then he would [not will] be able to
graduate.” Also note the use of “were”
instead of “was.” “If I were
a rich man….” “He’d be a basketball
star, if he were a foot taller.”
4. Split
infinitives. I’m an old fashion stickler
for these. With all due regard to “Star
Trek”, but the
5. Subject-verb
agreement. Make sure plural nouns get a
plural verb, singular nouns a singular verb.
“The death of millions of men, women, and children in
epidemics of contagious diseases causes [not cause] immeasurable stress on a
society.”
6. Appropriate
relative pronouns and modifiers.
Not “The girl that married me.” but “The girl who married me.”
Not “Kings which kill their own subjects” but “Kings who kill
their own…”
7.
Constructions which are not parallel.
Once you have started a clause using a particular grammatical construction,
you must maintain the construction through the entire sentence.
Wrong: “I love
swimming, hiking, biking, and to dance.”
Right: “I love swimming, hiking,
biking, and dancing.”
8. Avoid
contractions (“isn’t”, “doesn’t”, “won’t”, etc.) in formal writing.
9. As a general
stylistic rule, avoid starting sentences with “however.” This and other such words are “postpositive”, that is best placed after an opening clause.
“However, Napoleon soon realized his mistake” would be better as
“Napoleon, however, soon realized his mistake.”
10. Avoid
colloquial expressions. This means that
casual conversational phrases are best left out of formal papers.
Bad: “Caesar
was a little late crossing the Rubicon, but Pompey was pretty scared anyway cause he knew that Caesar was, like, crazy smart.”
Better: Almost
anything would be better. Perhaps something like “Caesar was delayed crossing the Rubicon,
but Pompey was fearful nonetheless, knowing Caesar’s abilities.”
A
note on plagiarism and proper citation.
In case anyone is unclear
on the concept, plagiarism is attempting to pass off another’s research, ideas
and writing as one’s own. If you write a
paper telling me that
It is not only obscure facts that require citation. If you decide that another author has expressed an idea better that you could, you may quote (with recessed margins and single spacing) that author, again providing a citation: (Robertson 75). Quoting an author without this acknowledgement is plagiarism. In any case, quoting is generally overdone, and it is better for you to “paraphrase” a source. In such a case, you put the ideas of your source in your own words.
Example:
It is thought that Cleisthenes may have acted in concert with the
Spartan king Cleomenes to overthrow the tyranny of
Hippias in
This might be paraphrased
Some think that Cleisthenes invited the Spartan ruler Cleomenes to help remove Hippias, the tyrant of
If the idea or hypothesis expressed is a novel one that the average reader probably would not have thought of for him or herself, then you should cite a source, regardless of whether you have quoted or paraphrased.
Simply cutting and pasting material from books or web sites does not count as original work.